Risk
by duj
Summary: HBP Spoilers! Rita shook her QuickQuotes Quill. "Is it true that famed recluse and warhero, Severus Snape, head of fastgrowing Potions company, Snape Enterprises, is here under cover of Polyjuice?" Thanks to HermioneGranger91 for the inspiration.
1. Good Riddance!

RISK

**This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.**

Thanks to HermioneGranger91, for allowing me to use what began as a review response to her fic, "Betrayal on Both Sides".

**WARNING This fic contains HBP Spoilers. Enter at own risk if you haven't read HBP.**

Snape smiled grimly as he kicked his former master's body and it flopped over, as broken and lifeless as before. That was two masters he'd killed now, Dumbledore and Voldemort. Good riddance. Free at last, after twenty years of being their quaffle - it would be a relief except that both sides would be chasing him now.

Impatiently he pushed back his messy fringe, revealing a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. 'Potter hair,' he grumbled to himself. Still, it had done the trick. He hadn't been sure it would work but the news that Potter had destroyed all the Horcruxes had inspired him to dare all on this chance and the risk had paid handsomely.

The prophecy, with Voldemort's unknowing participation, had chosen Harry Potter as the only one who could kill the Dark Lord and, on a purely physical level, he _was _Harry Potter now until the Polyjuice wore off. Internally he was still Severus Snape, of course, with all his vastly superior intelligence and abilities compared to the loathsome green-eyed brat, but the prophecy hadn't differentiated.

And "the power the Dark Lord knows not", from that extra line of prophecy he'd accidentally picked out of Potter's head the day he stopped him cursing Draco in the Entrance Hall at the end of their fifth year? Who'd have thought it meant merely the power the Dark Lord failed to perceive, the deception he didn't penetrate – Snape's disguise as Potter's body double… in every sense of the word?

Still-green eyes narrowed in mental calculation. Wormtail might scurry off instead of raising the alarm – his loyalty had always been to his own skin -but some of the other Death Eaters would be more vengeful. Bellatrix, for instance.He'd have to get moving. How soon would he need to brew a fresh batch and which of the hairs he'd stockpiled would be the most appropriate to use next?

**A/N I'm not sure if I'll ever write more on this one but I wrote 4 other opening paragraphs in the review which prompted me so, if you wanted more, let me know. And thanks again, HermioneGranger91.**


	2. The Other

THE OTHER

**This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.**

**WARNING This fic contains HBP Spoilers. Enter at own risk if you haven't read HBP.**

It was a cold November night. Harry, flanked by Order members, his wand clenched in one drooping hand, gawped at the body of his fallen foe.

"I don't understand," he muttered. "It was supposed to be me who killed Voldemort. All that training, finding the Horcruxes, the prophecy and the 'power that he knows not'. It was supposed to be me."

"Are you sure you had the full prophecy?" Lupin asked.

"Yes! I heard it straight from Dumbledore; he was there when it was made. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies …' "

Hermione's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

" 'The one with the power to vanquish… and either must die at the hand of the other…' Of course! Why didn't I ever see it before?"

If she was hoping for an answer she was out of luck. None of her companions could see it now.

"See what?" they asked.

"Professor Dumbledore was wrong all along. He must have been. Why ever did we think they were one and the same?"

"Eh?"

"The vanquisher and the one who kills," she insisted to a ring of blank faces. "Don't you see it? They're two different people. Harry vanquished Voldemort by destroying the Horcruxes and then the other, whoever he might be, was able to kill him."

Harry was the first to speak.

"Do you mean this "other" guy, whoever, could have chosen which one of us to kill? And he chose Voldemort?"

"Blimey, Harry," Ron said. "Lucky he must have been someone who liked you."


	3. Secret Consultation

SECRET CONSULTATION

**This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.**

Hermione sighed as Harry started another long rant about the mysterious stranger who'd forestalled him in killing Voldemort and unravelled the prophesy made before his birth.

"Oh Harry," she thought. "If you only knew." But it was better that he didn't. She supposed Snape was right on that one.

Luckily, he wasn't likely to find out. She had no plans to tell him. Fortunately, the three Death Eaters that Snape had secretly watched Voldemort dispatching to his hide-out (where they'd probably been staring at the proof of his betrayal at the very moment Snape had been dispatching their master) were not in a position to talk. Wormtail and Lucius had been killed before they could pass on the information and Bellatrix had been Crucioed into oblivion in a very satisfying example of the workings of a Just Providence – or a furious cuckolded husband, however you liked to call it.

Once Hermione had assimilated the new interpretation of the prophecy, she'd put her brain to work on identifying Mr Mysterious Other. A very little thought had narrowed the possibilities down to two; Neville, the only other person who'd ever fitted the specifications of "vanquisher", and Snape, the man who'd been delicately poised between the two sides ever since Voldemort had chosen to mark Harry as his equal instead. And Neville wasn't a good enough potion-maker to have brewed Polyjuice. (An empty vial had been found, discarded, by Voldemort's body. She'd recognised the smell.) Besides, he'd been as astonished as everyone else.

A secret consultation with Dumbledore's portrait – no point in upsetting people with speculation that mightn't be true - had both confirmed her analysis and provided her with a way to contact its unwilling subject. Snape had been only slightly curious to hear the full text of the prophecy – his success in assassinating the Dark Lord had already validated his interpretation of his overheard fragment, in practice if not in theory – and totally uninterested in her pleas for his return.

"Neither can live while the other survives," he'd sneered, with a pitying look for her foolish optimism. "Is the Brat-Who-Lost-Out likely to interpret that in any other way than advice to kill me before I kill him too?"

**A/N So far each chapter has begun with one of the openings I'd suggested to HeatherGranger91 in the review that inspired this fic. Here I've changed one word that no longer fitted, "unravelled" replaced "undone".**


	4. Guided By the Prophecy

GUIDED BY THE PROPHECY

**This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.**

**WARNING This fic contains HBP Spoilers. Enter at own risk if you haven't read HBP.**

It had been going on for some time before Ron discovered it. How long he didn't know, maybe months, maybe - no, it couldn't have been years. Could it? Hermione had been his best friend, along with Harry, since they were all first-years, and now she was his girlfriend. What secrets could she possibly need to keep from him?

"The ones you couldn't possibly understand!" she explained, her wand never wavering.

Ron scowled at her. She might be the cleverest witch of her age but she didn't have to treat him like a dunce.

"Try me."

Hermione chewed her bottom lip for a long frowning moment.

"Remember in our sixth year that Dumbledore told Harry 'what the prophecy says is only significant because Voldemort made it so'? Well that wasn't quite right. It was also because Dumbledore made it so."

"Eh? How d'you make that out?"

Hermione sighed. She wished she could go back to being the awe-struck eleven-year-old who _knew_ everything Dumbledore did was right.

"The greatest wizard of the age – the only one Voldemort ever feared – yet how many times did Harry have to face Voldemort by himself because Dumbledore was nowhere in sight? Even when he turned up in the Department of Mysteries just in time – remember how Harry told us afterwards that Dumbledore didn't even try to kill Voldemort? He just kept blocking him."

"So?"

"Don't you see?" she asked. "Dumbledore was as much guided by the prophecy as Voldemort was! More, in a way, because he'd heard all of it, not just the first bit. And every action he took thereafter was guided by the idea that he didn't have the power to vanquish Voldemort himself, only Harry did."

Ron was quiet for a full minute, his eyes darting from her to her black-clad companion.

"Even if that's right," he said at last, "You still haven't explained why any of this justifies your sneaking out to meet Snape. He's a traitor! And if you're helping him, so are you!"

**A/N Some might argue that Dumbledore couldn't kill Voldemort till his Horcruxes had been destroyed but I'm not convinced the order of destruction would make a difference.**


	5. Living and Surviving

LIVING AND SURVIVING

**This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.**

**Not sure why the last chapter got few reviews; I know some didn't get their alerts and at least one person had their review swallowed so maybe it was a glitch.**

**WARNING This fic contains HBP Spoilers. Enter at own risk if you haven't read HBP.**

Hermione refused to Obliviate Ron, despite Snape's strongest arguments. That left her no choice but to also tell Harry. He wasn't pleased.

"How could you help the enemy?" he accused, green eyes blazing.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione sighed. "Snape isn't your enemy. He never was. He's been trying to protect you ever since he found out you were the baby Voldemort wanted to kill."

"He killed Dumbledore!"

"That was to save you too. You and Malfoy and all of us."

Harry didn't believe her.

"You're mad! He didn't even know I was there."

"He saw two brooms. Who else had an Invisibility Cloak?" she pointed out. "The Unbreakable Vow would have killed him if he'd hesitated and then the other Death Eaters would have killed you and Greyback would have rampaged through the school biting everyone he saw."

"I suppose he told you so!" Harry sneered.

She tried another tack.

"He was the one who killed Voldemort, Harry!"

"How d'you know?"

"Figured it out, talked to Dumbledore's portrait, asked him myself," she said.

"That just proves he wants to kill me! The prophecy says -"

" 'Neither can live while the other survives', I know. But it doesn't have to mean what you think it means."

"What else can it mean?" Harry demanded.

This was the hard part. She took a deep breath.

"The difference between living and surviving. You can't go on with your life as long as he remains 'the other'."

"You mean all he has to do is change his identity?" Harry asked sceptically.

Hermione chose her words carefully.

"I think it's more that you have to stop thinking of him as 'other'. We're on the same side. Once you acknowledge that and forgive him for hiding it so well, you'll be free. And so will he."

"_What?" _Harry yelped. "Not the power of love again? I didn't believe in that even when Dumbledore said it!"

"Harry, remember how Dumbledore said the prophecy was only fulfilled because of how Voldemort interpreted it? It's in your hands now – yours and Snape's. You _choose_ how the prophecy works. Forgive each other – and live."

**A/N Keen-eyed readers may notice that I didn't use the last of my openings (the inspiration for this fic) in this chapter. That's because it made the chapter too long. The good thing is you get a bonus sixth chapter where I use it instead.**


	6. Dunderheaded As Ever

DUNDERHEADED AS EVER

**This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.**

**This is another bonus chapter. The next and final chapter (already written) uses the last of my prepared chapter openings.**

**Warning: HBP Spoilers. **

Green eyes and black battled for ascendancy. Hermione chewed on her lip as she watched, the disputants' wands clutched in one hand and hers in the other. Harry spoke first.

"I hate you! You killed my parents and Sirius and Dumbledore!"

Snape scowled.

"Dunderheaded as ever, Potter; one out of three. Voldemort killed your parents. Bellatrix killed Black."

"It was your fault! You told snake-face the Prophecy and, whatever Dumbledore said, I know you're not sorry!"

Lids veiled black eyes and greasy hair shrouded pale, proud face.

"I've revenged myself on both my masters," Snape muttered, "the one who held the wand and the one who sold her out. He convinced me it was a risk worth taking, a chance to end the war, but I'd have refused if I'd known it was Lily."

Harry gaped at him.

"Who? What?"

"You're slower than ever. Dumbledore."

"You're lying!" Harry protested, when his voice returned.

"I wouldn't lie to Lily's son, however little you resemble her," Snape snarled.

"That's – that's just sick! You didn't love my mother, you called her a filthy mudblood!"

"Have you never spoken too fiercely in anger?" Snape's voice dripped with mock-patience.

Harry shot a glance at Hermione and bit his lip. Ron had called her a nightmare once and a know-it-all often and he hadn't been much better.

"Lily was brilliant. I admired her mind and enjoyed her company," Snape continued. "She'd have been disappointed to see you bungle her hex so crudely in your sixth year. When I used it on your father, I did no more than mark his smirking face."

"I don't know what you –" _Sectumsempra_? "I don't believe you! My mother would never have made up a dark curse like that!"

"Dark is as Dark does. She intended it for use on Death Eaters."

"She should have used it on you then!" Harry sneered.

"That's enough!" Hermione said, losing patience. "Men! If you two think six years of watching you snipe at each other wasn't enough, I'll be happy to hex both of you!"

They whirled as one, fists clenched and eyes wide.

"You're here to forgive each other so you can each go off and forget the other one ever existed. Are you going to do that or do you plan to waste the rest of your lives skirmishing?" she asked pointedly.

"I will if he will," they said in unison, then turned to glare at each other.

Hermione laughed.

"Idiots," she said affectionately.


	7. Another Public Brawl

ANOTHER PUBLIC BRAWL

**This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.**

**Here is the last of the original chapter-openings, inspired by HermioneGranger91. Thanks to all my reviewers.**

**Warning: HBP Spoilers. **

"Tell me more." Rita shook her Quick-Quotes Quill to loosen the ink. It had been malfunctioning recently. Maybe she needed to try those new Weasley models, guaranteed never to spatter or splatter or splutter or splotch. "Is it true that famed recluse and war-hero, Severus Snape, head of fast-growing Potions company, Snape Enterprises, and, of course, your wife's employer, is here at your wedding under cover of Polyjuice?"

Ron's hand clenched around his fifth glass of Ogdens.

"How did you? Er, no, no, not at all," he said unconvincingly. "Where did you get such a ridiculous –"

"And the reason for his disguise is to avoid another public brawl with war-hero, Auror and candidate for Minister of Magic, Harry Potter?" She gave the quill another shake. "I understand the one at your wife's award ceremony for her joint-mastery of Potions and Charms left thirteen people in the Spell Damage Ward at St Mungo's?"

"Well, they never did like – Of course not. As if Harry can't restrain – Well, no one was permanently injured!" Ron protested, taking another swig. "They've all been out for months!"

"Ah yes, that was three and a half years ago, was it not?" Rita smiled sweetly. "My sources say he was the fat moustachioed gent in the Hawaian shirt, who left twenty minutes ago?"

Ron laughed with relief.

"As if Snape would ever wear a Hawaian shirt! That was just Tonks, providing a diversi – Er, I mean, nonsense, nonsense. He hasn't been here at all –"

He gave his glass a slightly cross-eyed glare, then glanced at his interrogator and back at his glass. He put it down and began backing away, eyes darting from side to side.

"Er, well, yes, this has been a very pleasant chat, I'm sure. Er, you won't print any of that, will you? I mean –" He blenched and fell silent as his wife appeared by his side.

"Rita Skeeter, what a pleasant surprise!" Hermione gave a white-toothed smile. "You must let me tell you about my boss's latest product. The main ingredient is ground beetle wings – Oh, I'm sorry. Must you be going already? Do come and visit at Snape Enterprises, won't you? You'll always be welcome –"

**The End? Not if you hate a Ron-Hermione ending. This extra is for the SSHG romanticists: **

"Brilliant acting," Hermione whispered, kissing her husband. "You fooled everyone. Ron and Narcissa owled; they're in Paris."

Severus smirked.

**The End  
**


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